Note to the "ladder of force left"

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Oct 25 08:11:52 PDT 2001


Thiago Oppermann wrote:


>If I was feeling particularly bold, I'd say the US prefers the cold
>calculation of using violence, terrible as it is and likely to invoke
>terrible retribution, than the uncertainty of pursuing the novel course
>of negotiating and compromising. Elites hate uncertainty.

It's not just that - I think that U.S. war planners know that the empire is sustained through extravagant displays of violence - excessive, out of all proportion to the stimulus. For every whisker of Uncle Sam's that's tweaked, hundreds must die.

Doug



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